The scoop on Eminem's too-hot-for-MTV video

Eminem’s adults-only video ”Superman,” in which the rapper frolics with a topless porn star and exposes his bare butt, is supposed to be an exclusive feature on the ”8 Mile” DVD (available March 18), but for a few days it was free to anyone with a computer and a high speed Internet connection.

Last week, word leaked out that the cut was available at hsiproductions.com (the official site of HSI Productions, a music video production company affiliated with ”Superman” director Paul Hunter), but the video was pulled within a day and a half. ”I don’t know anything about [the leak], but at one point there was a thought to have an Internet version of the video that would work as underground marketing,” says Hunter, who notes that several versions of the video were cut together. ”Some were cleaner than others.”

The cut that purchasers of the DVD will see is strictly for grown-ups. Starring porn actress Gina Lynn as Eminem’s love interest (Eminem chose Lynn after seeing her cameo in ”Analyze That”), the video shows the rapper fondling his well-endowed costar in a hallway, then bringing her back to his hotel room. After shedding his white button-down shirt (”We were going for a Clark Kent kind of look,” says Hunter), the rapper dives under the covers with Lynn, but moments later, the porn star is inexplicably tossed out of the room. An irritated Eminem promptly locks the door behind her.

The pair then use the hotel room peephole to torment one another, with Lynn baring her breasts and Slim Shady flipping off his dumped seductress and mooning her. For anyone wondering if Slim Shady used a stunt butt, the answer is no. ”That was really him, and it was an on-set improvisation,” says Hunter. ”We just went with the lyrics of the song.”

Another tantalizing image that appears at random throughout the video is Eminem lying shirtless on his back in a sea of writhing, scantily clad women. ”I wanted to do something that was rock star, way over the top,” says Hunter, who collaborated on the storyline for the video with the rapper. ”If anyone could pull off something like that, it’s Eminem.”

Though the video is certainly sexually charged, not everyone is going to be turned on by some of the more aggro images: In addition to Lynn being slammed against a wall as she’s kicked out of the hotel room, a later scene has Eminem pushing a grabbing groupie off a nighclub barstool. Combined with lyrics like ”put anthrax on a Tampax and slap you till you can’t stand,” the video packs a punch some may find offensive. In Em’s defense, Hunter says the rapper’s ability to make fun of himself removes some of the sting: ”He’s able to make you identify with what he’s going through. That’s why you can accept it.”

What wasn’t acceptable was a scene intended for the video’s finale that was ultimately cut. ”There’s a version we shot with exploding people at the end that we did with CGI,” says Hunter of the scene, which was to take place after Eminem sees Lynn leaving the nightclub with another man. In the version used for the DVD, an image of Eminem stepping away from the hotel room peephole is shown instead.

Though Eminem’s record label, Interscope, declined comment about plans to release a tamer version of the video to MTV, fans unwilling to shell out their hard-earned cash for the DVD should stay tuned anyway. ”We shot versions where Gina [Lynn] wasn’t revealing her breasts and Eminem wasn’t dropping his pants,” says Hunter. What fun is that?